So I have am serveral days into the process of getting a dual redundant OS 6 nas.
Really, there has got to be a better way than this;
assuming starting with a new clean nas, - update to latest firmware - factory default with the number of drives you intend to use, minus 1 (ie 6 drive dual redundancy, start with 5 drives) - wait ~2 days for xraid2/raid5 volume to become redundant - totally un-intuitively disable x-raid mode (don't panic it can be re-enabled later) - insert last drive, it will add a new volume, dont panic - delete newly created volume - click the redundant main volume - click add parity - wait 250+ hours (7 to 10 days) for volume to restripe to dual redundancy, and this is speed with an otherwise COMPLETELY IDLE array. - re-enable x-raid mode (so if you upgrade drives the volume will automatically expand as it is able)
So do any of the newer revisions of os6 allow for expansion conversion from single to dual redundancy? (like how os 4 does)
Yes, just un-tick X-RAID; add your new disk; then click on the new disk and you should see a "Add Parity" button. After that you can re-tick the X-RAID button.
TeknoJnky wrote:
Good info, thanks Skywalker!
Do you know if there are any plans to enable dual redundancy from factory default/raidar?
Skywalker wrote:
No, I don't believe so, since you can delete and create volumes from the web UI without rebooting now, and switch between X-RAID and Flex-RAID mode.
While being able to add/remove volumes without rebooting is nice, having to wait 2 weeks to get use dual redundancy is more than a little ridiculous.
We really really really need to be able to create dual redundant volumes from factory default (just like raidiator 4.x).
Also, this process should also be documented and made readily apparent from the OS 6.
You can just factory default with all the drives (6), as soon as the volume starts being created immediately change to flexraid, change to raid 6, then change back to xraid. There is no need to wait until the first volume is built. This way you only need to go through one volume build, not 2 as you have described.
It's not quite as smooth as os4 but it's pretty straightforward.
Hmm, well maybe I am just slow, but by the time I get to the volume after a factory reset, it is already created the x-raid/raid5 volume and started resyncing.
Something I did not try, was delete the raid-5/x-raid and create a new raid-6 volume, which may have been faster, but I wasn't sure if there was any dependencies on the default data volume.
In any case, the process for raidiator 4.x was dead simple (either via raidar option, or as an option for the next disk within frontview), in OS 6 it is neither simple nor obvious/apparent within the OS 6 GUI, and even in the forums is not very well documented other than the few scattered comments.
My point is that you can just switch to flexraid even though the resync has started, change to raid 6 then change back to xraid, and yes you need to destroy a volume at some point. Agree it could be simpler, but it's not too onerous.
The disadvantage if you delete the default volume is you lose the default shares. It is best to create the new RAID-6 volume using the same name as the default one "data".
2 weeks to restripe from raid 5 to raid 6 on a brand new volume, no data and no apps or other non-default background processes installed
Wed Aug 6 2014 18:12:50 Volume: Volume 'data' health changed from 'DEGRADED' to 'REDUNDANT'. Wed Aug 6 2014 18:12:48 Volume: Volume 'data' has been rebuilt.
initial volume rebuild complete, switched to flex-raid, added 6th volume and start dual redundancy restripe/rebuild.
Wed Jul 23 2014 18:53:06 Volume: Rebuilding started for Volume 'data'. Wed Jul 23 2014 18:51:33 Volume: Volume 'data-0' has been deleted from the system. Wed Jul 23 2014 18:49:47 Disk: Disk Model:ST4000DM000-1F2168 Serial:Z30052LP has been added to Channel '6' of the head unit. Wed Jul 23 2014 13:09:14 Volume: Volume 'data' has been rebuilt.
Device and initial Volume creation
Tue Jul 22 2014 8:58:47 Volume: Rebuilding started for Volume 'data'. Tue Jul 22 2014 8:57:58 System: ReadyNASOS background service started.
Did you SSH in and check if any processes were hogging resources that shouldn't be? If something is hogging resources that shouldn't be then the resync will be a lot slower than it otherwise should be.
pro 6 (upgraded with 4gig ram and os 6) os 619 rc8 factory defaulted after rc8 installed
4tb, and since there does not appear to be any way to copy/paste disk information from the os 6 UI (there is another suggestion for you), the general specs are 4x 4tb hitachi 7200rpm, 2x 4tb seagate 5900 rpm.
no, the only processes that should have been running were what is enabled by factory default. If there were any processes hogging resources, it would have only been what was enabled by default.
I am not implying there are issues with the drives or necessarily os6, I am simply providing the final timeline it took to go from 5x 4tb raid 5, to 6x 4tb raid6. (note also, these are the same 6 disks that have been in this devices for a year or more on radiator 4.x and routinely saturate the gigabit link when copying to/from sata3 SSD drive, so they can easily sustain 150+ mbs).
And to re-emphasize that there should be an easier way to factory default and choose raid6/dual redundancy from the start.
Now I have to start the restore data process then install and configure app process.
But at least I (hopefully) never have to worry about factory defaulting again for future upgrades.
I know with 4.2.x conversions from RAID-5 to RAID-6 can take quite a while on that, so the same would be the case on OS6 (but a few weeks sounds like a long time, though you are using high capacity disks and as it has to sync the disks sector by sector it will take twice as long as it would have with 2TB disks). Not only is there heavy stress on all disks, but a lot has to be moved around to change from distributing single parity to distribute double parity.
You shouldn't need to do another factory default.
I agree an article is needed to describe both ways of setting up RAID-6 (I do miss setting it up via RAIDar too). On multiple systems I have deleted the default volume shortly after it was created and whilst the array had just started syncing. Then I created a new RAID-6 volume. As a new md device is created when you do it the way I did the array syncs much faster (much like how it would when you could choose RAID-6 from the start in RAIDar when running 4.2.x). In my case on the 516 it took just hours to sync.
yes, I have done the raid5 to 6 conversion with 4.x, and it took a long time, but I don't think it was 2 weeks.
In any case, my primary issue is not that raid 6 conversion takes a long time, but that as you mention it takes much less time to initialize a raid 6 volume from the start.
Since the volume was empty, I should have just deleted the default raid 5 volume and created a new raid 6 volume.
My old pro bus (also now on os 6, and with 4gig ram) has been sitting on a full raid 5 with 5x 4tb disks (it has all the data I backed up from my pro 6), and I will eventually have to decide if I want to do the raid 6 conversion, or just delete the existing volume and create a new raid 6 volume from scratch (once I get a last new 4tb drive).
I tried to follow this process. Here is my result. My system is OS 6.3.5 beta on Pro 6 with upgraded RAM and processor, 5 x4 TB when fully configured.
- update to latest firmware - factory default with the number of drives you intend to use, minus 1 (4 drives in my case)
- wait ~16 hours for xraid2/raid5 volume to become redundant - totally un-intuitively disable x-raid mode (don't panic it can be re-enabled later) - insert last drive - 30 seconds later it started to rebuild. I could see the "Add Parity" button greyed out and nothing happened when clicked. This Add parity button disappeared once the new disk had completed rebuilding. The process does not offer to allow me to delete newly created volume
I am left with RAID 5 XRAID -- I am at a loss about how to get to dual parity.
- insert last drive - 30 seconds later it started to rebuild. I could see the "Add Parity" button greyed out and nothing happened when clicked. This Add parity button disappeared once the new disk had completed rebuilding. The process does not offer to allow me to delete newly created volume
I am left with RAID 5 XRAID -- I am at a loss about how to get to dual parity.
Unfortunately, once the volume has expanded you can't get to dual parity.
Unfortunately, once the volume has expanded you can't get to dual parity.
Ouch. That means I need to start again. If I redo the process, it sounds like the instruction to put all the drives into the RNAS and quickly switch to Flex-RAID is the way to go.
